EURO 2004 seems a distant memory now which, I suppose, sums up England's results in Portugal.

While everyone agrees that we were unlucky to lose out on penalties, now that the dust has settled the squad which had promised so much in the World Cup should have done better than the quarter finals.

What would normally be a quiet period for the FA since then has been anything but - for the wrong reasons, of course.

Tabloid stories which have been churned out in the last few days are a million miles removed from the old Lancaster Gate days.

Lots of suggestions have been made about the reorganisation of football's ruling body. Having managed in all four divisions of our professional league, like most professionals I viewed the FA with a little disdain until I was appointed to manage the national B and under-21 teams.

The international team is the highest point of a huge pyramid in this country, with the 92 professional clubs immediately underneath, but it should be remembered that there are about 15,000 other clubs below that.

Many of our home-grown players will have come through the ranks of some amateur or non-league clubs and thousands of administrators are needed to maintain the strong base of the pyramid. Each county has a representative on the FA committee.

They tend not to be young men, having served their time coming through the ranks, but their knowledge and experience of those levels should never be underestimated.

However, over the years there have been many rumblings for the full-time professionals of the game to take over more responsibility. Certainly I would agree when it comes to discipline.

I could never accept when taking one of my full-time professional players in front of a tribunal that he should be judged by a panel usually made up of people involved on purely the amateur side.

The FA Cup and the national team are the two main treasures in the cabinet of the FA. It could well be dangerous to allow the professional clubs to take over both of these. Besides, the FA relies on the vast income from both of these competitions to help finance grass roots football.

Let's face it, the Premiership are continually under fire from the other 72 pro clubs for not passing down a bigger percentage of the huge television income already.

However, the administration at the FA is on thin ice now. The mishandling of recent events has left them wide open to criticism and it will be interesting to see what changes occur, with the amateur and non-league side of the game more interested than most.

It should also be remembered that World Cup qualifying games will be upon us very soon and the reaction that Sven gets from the public, particularly in the friendly at Newcastle next week, will determine his future.